MCE British Superbike star Leon Haslam has been called into the Puccetti Kawasaki WorldSBK outfit to test at Portimao tomorrow after rider Randy Krummenacher injured himself in a crash at Jerez yesterday.

Haslam was due to fly back to the UK today via Barcelona after spending two days getting his JG Speedfit biake dialled in but will now travel to the Portugese track as a stand-in at the request of Kawasaki.

“Krummenacher injured himself yesterday, so they want me to go to Portimao and put in some laps to see where the bike is before it gets put in crates and shipped to Phillip Island,” Haslam told BSN from the airport.

“From my perspective, Kawasaki have asked me to do it and it will help if we are to do some wildcards this year as I will have ridden the bike in WorldSBK trim before.”

Haslam and team-mate Luke Mossey spent two days at Jerez getting their BSB-spec ZX-10RRs shaken down and the Derby rider is pleased with the progress.

“It went better than expected for a first roll out on a new bike. There were a lot of different components to try, mapping to do, working from what we had last year. We did a few back-to-back tests with chassis components and we have also switched to Ohlins this year.

“It couldn’t feel much better and in terms of laptimes, we were only a tenth or so off the Honda, the BMW and Eugene on the Aprilia and we didn’t use the softest-option WSBK tyre.

“To be that close on our first roll out is good and I am extremely happy. I was a lot quicker than last year and we weren’t looking at that.”